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American Morning

Author Discusses Arrest of Men Believed to Have al Qaeda Ties

Aired July 18, 2002 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Security is being stepped up around some very well known landmarks around the country today after authorities in Spain arrested a group of men who were believed to have ties to al Qaeda. What set off the alarms here were videotapes one of the suspects had. The tapes include extensive footage of some very well known places, including the World Trade Center, the Golden Gate Bridge and several big-name theme parks.

With me now from Toronto with more on the arrests, Eric Margolis, an author, who has met with al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.

Welcome back. Good to see you, sir.

ERIC MARGOLIS, AUTHOR, "WAR AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD": Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Eric, what do you make of these arrests? Who are these guys?

MARGOLIS: This is a fascinating story. These are sort of mid- level, possibly al Qaeda operatives, who were long-term residents of Spain. In fact, one or two of them were naturalized Spanish citizens. And they were living very modest lives there, weren't making any kind of fuss, but apparently they had supplied logistics and financial assistance for the Qaeda 9/11 attack team. That's the supposition. There's no proof yet against these people.

But there is this notorious two-hour-long videotape. It was made four years ago, and it shows two hours alone of practically the World Trade Center, plus snippets of other important American landmarks. And this was not a tourist video. It looked like it was being designed as sort of their version of our aerial reconnaissance planning for a military mission.

ZAHN: And of course the -- a statement was put out yesterday from the Spanish tourism -- or excuse me, Interior Ministry who have just basically reaffirmed what you've just said. It said, "Two of the tapes are centered monographically on innumerable shots from every angle of and various distances to the Twin Towers in New York. The same is seen with the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, of which its pillar of suspension is emphasized. Similar cases are seen with the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the interior and exterior zones of an airport in New York, as well as the Sears Tower in Chicago and Disneyland and Universal Studio Parks in California." Now when we talk about possible ties here, is this not good enough to prove even a weak link to al Qaeda here?

MARGOLIS: Well the links are not established. The judge who was investigating and brought these charges, the Spanish Judge Garzon, is the same man who went after Chile's Augusto Pinochet. He's a publicity-seeking judge and in my view, not always entirely dependable. But this looks like a pretty interesting linkage so far.

What I find particularly noteworthy here is that these people were all from Syria and -- originally, and they were tied and/or members of some Syrian radical fundamentalist Suni-Muslim groups, one known as the Soldiers of Allah from northern Syria, from Alepo (ph). And they have been fighting the Syrian government for over a decade. These people are not state-sponsored terrorism. These are freelance, free enterprise, privatized terrorism who are fighting against the United States.

And as I've been saying here on CNN for a long time, they may or may not be part of al Qaeda. My feeling is that they are only loosely linked in a sort of an anti-American international. And almost every week now we're finding new groups and new fragments of these groups popping up not only in the Middle East but particularly in Western Europe.

ZAHN: What does it mean to you that these videotapes that were seized seem to be a couple years old?

MARGOLIS: Well probably that the plan -- this suggests that if these were in fact part of the 9/11 mission that this attack was planned for a very long time and very carefully and deliberately done. It's frightening, because obviously there are other targets that are in the hopper for potential attacks.

ZAHN: And on to the issue of Osama bin Laden. There's been a lot of speculation in the last several days about whether he's dead or alive. And a top FBI official had this to say about him.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALE WATSON: Is OBL alive or is he dead? I'm not real sure of the answer, is he alive or dead. I personally think he's probably not with us anymore, but I have no evidence to support that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Well, Eric, he may not have no evidence to support that, why would he say that?

MARGOLIS: Well it sounds like he consulted his crystal ball or Ouija board. It's kind of an odd way to break this very important news, America's public enemy No. 1, well, you know, I think he's dead.

What's curious about this is that the FBI has become the newest competitor to the CIA. We have two bureaucracies now. The FBI's gone international, and I hope it's talking to the CIA when it's looking for bin Laden. I doubt that it is entirely. This is just a very odd statement.

ZAHN: Well I mean are you fairly certain this is something he thought about saying or do you think he just said that on the -- on the cuff?

MARGOLIS: Yes, I think he said it on the cuff, but he must have heard something recently that suggested that bin Laden was dead. The Pakistanis -- the FBI has been working with Pakistani internal security forces and the Pakistanis have been claiming for a long time that bin Laden is dead. They don't want to admit that he may be alive and well in Pakistan's northwest frontier province, which I happen to think where -- that's where he is. So this is probably from the Pakistanis. I don't know how familiar the FBI is with that part of the world.

ZAHN: I can imagine from reading between the lines what you're saying you wish they were.

Eric Margolis, as always, good to have you on the air. Thank you very much for your perspective this morning.

MARGOLIS: Pleasure, Paula.

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